Picture That
by Sassy Aloo
Summary: After the shock of a gun in his face, Riku gets a bit of look into Cloud's past thanks to Zack. Request for Jedi.


**Warnings:** Bit of language.

**Pairings:** Cloud/Riku

**Sassy's Note:** Written for Jedi because I was bored; she wanted something with Zack, Riku, and a gun. This one may be a bit rocky, but it was fun.

**Picture That**

When Riku walked into his house, he wasn't exactly prepared to be staring down the barrel of a gun. As he wasn't prepared for the shock, he yelped and fell backwards out of the front door, skittering backwards crab-like. As soon as he hit the ground, he heard cursing from inside, and before he could get back to his feet, a head poked out of the door.

"Shit, Riku! I'm sorry!" said Zack, violet eyes wide as he rushed over to Riku and helped him to his feet. The silver-haired one brushed himself off once he was on his feet, heart still pounding violently in his chest.

"It's… I'm… why exactly do you have a gun?" he asked, eyeing the other warily.

Zack rubbed the back of his head and chuckled slightly, face flushed. "It's not mine, actually. It's Spike's."

"Cloud's? Since when does Cloud have a gun?" A better question would be why would Cloud _need_ a gun? The man was hell-fury with a sword.

"Had one ever since he worked for ShinRa." Lips quirked into a slightly amused smile. "You really never knew he kept his gun?"

"No. He hardly talks about ShinRa."

"Well, they're memories he'd like to suppress, but he never actually threw his gun or uniform out."

Zack noticed the genuine surprise on Riku's face. "They've been in your attic for years." Riku just stared at the black-haired man.

"I guess it's no big deal, but I've never noticed them, and he's never said anything." He tipped his head back as if in thought. "It's… kind of hard to picture Cloud in a uniform."

Zack laughed at that. "He doesn't look half bad, you know. I guess if you didn't know about the gun and uniform, you've never seen the pictures, huh?"

"He has pictures, too?"

With a smirk, Zack ushered the other man into the house. Riku immediately noticed the box sitting on the floor beside the couch, where the gun was laying along with a bottle of something that smelled like shoe polish and a rag. Peeking out from the top of the box, he could just see the corner of a neatly pressed sleeve.

"This is it," said Zack. "All of it's in there, pictures and the works."

Riku approached the box, and a closer look, he'd seen it before. It was nondescript with no writing or markings on it whatsoever. No wonder he'd always overlooked it. Brow slightly urrowed, he knelt down beside it and pulled out the thick cloth on top.

"That's the top to the uniform," said Zack over his shoulder. "That's not so bad. Get a load of his helmet." The violet-eyed man reached into the box and pulled out a metal helmet. Riku actually laughed when he saw it; it was the strangest helmet he'd ever seen.

"Cloud used to wear that on his _head_?"

"Oh yeah. All of the army had to." Zack flipped it and looked inside. "Spike's head was a helluva lot smaller back then, too. There's no way he'd be able fit this on his cranium anymore."

"He was sixteen when he was in the army, right?"

"Yeah. Scrawny little thing back then, too." He placed the helmet on the couch beside the gun. "As far as I know, he didn't bulk up until after I… ya know… I hardly recognized him after I came back."

Riku grinned slightly at that, and Zack knelt beside him. They pulled out the uniform, Zack explaining what straps and plates went where until Riku had a pretty good idea what it was suppose to look like. Still, he had a hard time picturing it on Cloud

Until Zack pulled out a picture of Cloud in full uniform. Riku's jaw dropped. Had it not been for the hair, Riku would have said there was no way that could have been Cloud. The teenage boy in the picture was thin and lacked all the muscle Cloud had. He was wearing the uniform, which Riku had noticed was quite small in size – definitely wouldn't fit on the Cloud he knew. The Cloud in the picture was holding the helmet tucked under and arm and standing next to a younger version of Zack – who looked relatively the same, albeit a bit more baby-faced.

"Hard to believe that us, huh?" Zack's amused tone was laced with nostalgia. "It's been a long time…" Riku could tell he had zoned out when his eyes grew distant, so he looked back at the picture. Both of them were smiling, standing on a snowy ridge with a few flakes drifting down around them. He chuckled slightly at the sight of Cloud's boyish face so happy, and that snapped Zack out of his trance.

"Heh, look how _cute_ we both were," he cooed down at the photo. "So now you know we've always been good-looking."

Riku rolled his eyes and elbowed the other in the ribs before digging through the stacks of pictures. They sat on the floor for a while, Zack providing him the details behind each and every picture they looked at. By the time they had almost been through the entire massive stack, Riku had seen the majority of ShinRa headquarters, the barracks Cloud had been assigned too, Sephiroth before he lost his mind, a younger Reno and Rude, Zack passed out naked in main lobby of the building, and Cloud's disgusted face after his very first sip of beer.

The two were caught up laughing at the story of just _why_ Zack was passed out naked in the main lobby, when the front door again opened, and in walked the other inhabitant of the house. A blond eyebrow rose at the two full-grown men cackling on the living room floor by a box he hadn't been through in ages. Riku looked back when he heard the door snap close, and his cyan eyes were watery with tears of hilarity.

"H-hey," he gasped, still chuckling happily.

"Hey," said Cloud, walking over to where Riku was sitting cross-legged on the floor, and Zack was leaning against the couch howling with laughter. "Dare I ask what is so hilarious?"

Zack said nothing – not that he could at that point – but held up the picture for Cloud to take. He did, and stared at it for less than a second before he – much to Riku's surprise – burst out into laughter to rival Zack's. This got them all going again and for awhile the three of them couldn't stop.

"I never thought anyone could get _that_ drunk," Cloud said, wiping his eyes and laughing a bit more. "Zack really took the cake on that one."

"I'd almost forgotten about that," said the raven-haired man. "Sephiroth was mortified. Best day of my life right there."

"You have pretty low standards," said Cloud good-naturedly. Riku smiled in his direction.

"Hey, Cloud? How come you've never told me about all of this?" he asked, brushing the blond's hand with his. Cloud just shrugged.

"Never found a good time to bring it up, and after awhile I just forgot I had it all."

"No kidding," said Zack, picking up the odd helmet again and offering it to Cloud. "Hey, Spike, try putting this on your head again."

"You know it won't fit."

"Yeah, I know, I just want to laugh at you trying."

"Very funny," said the blond, taking the helmet and looking it over. "It's been so long," he muttered.

"Mm hmm." Zack seemed to be counting on his fingers for a moment. "Fifteen years exactly."

"It doesn't seem like that much time should have passed." Cloud smiled slightly. "Looking back it doesn't seem so bad."

"Heh, yeah. I kinda miss those old days."

"Not that I don't love hearing about back then," Riku spoke up, voicing the question he'd been holding. "But why did Zack have this stuff out in the first place."

"Found my own gun in the back of a closet," said Zack. "Cleaned it and got it working again. Spike noticed it the other day and bribed me to clean his own gun just in case he ever needs it."

"I never could clean and polish a gun properly," said Cloud. "One of the reasons I never made SOLDIER."

"I can't see you do anything with a gun," said Riku, eyeing the gun on the couch. "You're definitely more of a sword person."

Cloud snorted. "Just because I can't polish a gun doesn't mean I can't use one."

"I just _can't_ picture that…" Zack snickered, Cloud raised an eyebrow, and Riku grinned apologetically.

With a sigh, Cloud rose from his position on the floor and opened the front door. For a moment, Riku thought he was going to leave – he didn't mean to piss him off! But Cloud just opened it wide and walked over to the couch. He picked the gun up and messed with a few things on the barrel. It snapped downward and folded neatly, where it snapped into place, obviously in position it was carried around in or stored.

"Spike…" Zack said uncertainly, but Cloud's lips quirked upwards for a second before he began moving.

In one swift, graceful movement, Cloud had the gun raised, snapped back into place, dodge-rolled over to the door, raised the gun high and fired two loud shots into the sky. He then stood up from his kneeling position, extending his arm and twirling the gun expertly in around his hand, until he pulled his arm back and the gun snapped back into its folded position. He looked back to Zack and Riku, grinning slyly.

Zack burst out into laughter again. "I bet _anything_Leon just totally went into cardiac arrest! Oh, Spikey, he's going to _murder_ you!"

Riku stared at the gun in his lover's hands with wide cyan eyes. Simple as it had been, the move had been impressive. Riku never had any idea.

"Can you picture it now?" Cloud asked, a teasing note to his voice as he tapped the gun on his shoulder, other hand on his hip.

The silver-haired man grinned and stood up, slinking over to the blond. He kicked the door shut and pressed his lips to Cloud's, ignoring Zack's catcalls and sporadic bursts of laughter.

"Yeah," he breathed. "I can picture it now."

"Don't tell me you've just developed a gun fetish," Cloud said with a smirk.

"I think I did."

Before Riku could lean in and kiss Cloud again, the front door banged open, giving way to a fuming Squall Leonhart who was wielding his gunblade like a machete at that point.

"Who the fuck just did that?" he demanded, eyeing the gun in Cloud's hands.

It was at this that Riku, Zack, and Cloud went into hysterics again, leaving a thoroughly bemused and infuriated Leon to stare at them all, wondering what the hell he had just walked in upon.

-end-

**Sassy:** Thank Shiva, yo… I didn't think I'd ever get done. The ending is a tad abrupt… oh well. Couldn't think of a better ending that wouldn't have added on another three hundred or so words… Anyway, just a bit recollection thanks to Crisis Core. I cannot wait to play that game. Oh, and for clarity, Cloud's 31, so Riku's roundabouts 23. I wanted to go for a different angle than usual.


End file.
